From Cybermite to Cyberman
by TheEleventhWheatley
Summary: A collapsing spacecraft, a Cyberman and a hapless survivor. What could possibly go wrong? [One-shot, written in the space of a couple of days. Hope you enjoy]


The corridor was bathed in a deathly red light, flickering and fluctuating as the power did the same. The smoke and darkness was suffocating. A horrible deep groaning noise roared across the corridor every few seconds. The infrastructure was clearly collapsing. Slowly but surely, it was definitely tearing itself apart.

Samuel Taylor ran through the corridor as it teetered on the brink of a fiery destruction. The lights pulsed as a steady alarm blared.

He stopped dead as a shadow at the end of the corridor made itself known. Shimmering, the figure stepped from the blazing fire and into the light.

A Cyberman.

It turned its head, slowly, to look at Sam. His heart skipped a beat. It spoke.

"You are compatible."

There was a pause.

It began to march towards him.

Sam was exhausted. Utterly, truly exhausted. He turned to run, but his legs seemed uncooperative. Turning again, he forced himself into some semblance of a run, and fled.

He didn't get far. A jolt of something cold and sharp exploded into his back, and for a couple of moments it was difficult to breathe. Then he fell to the floor, weak and unresisting.

The Cyberman lowered its weapon and strode over to him. "You will be upgraded."

"No," Sam managed to gasp, "Please! No!"

Raising its wrist, the Cyberman paused for a moment and then spoke again. "Upgrade in progress."

There was a hissing, squealing sound as a hatch within the Cyberman's wrist opened itself. A spray of little mechanical creatures sprung from within.

Cybermites.

Sam cried out as they flew from the Cyberman to himself, scrambling and scrabbling as they crawled up his body. He fumbled with the little mechanical bugs, picking up a lone Cybermite as it ascended his neck. But it was too late. He felt something under his skin. Something cold and metallic, near his head. There was a squelch, and then Sam lost control of his body and collapsed to the floor again.

The Cyberman patiently waited for Sam to recover. He pulled himself from the floor, but this time his movements were slow, measured and outright mechanical.

His eyes were cold, and a mysteriously bright shade of blue. The metallic protrusion on the right side of his face bleeped and whirred, as it began to ever-so-slowly consume the rest of his face.

"Upgrade complete." chorused both Sam and the Cyberman.

"Your drone designation is now S8-W3." declared the Cyberman.

"Your conversion is not yet complete." it continued.

"Yes." agreed S8-W3, in a slow mechanical drone.

"Follow me. We shall return to the Cybership and you will be fully converted."

"Yes." repeated S8-W3.

Suddenly the ship shook again. There was a terrible growling sound as yet another sector collapsed. S8-W3 turned to follow the retreating Cyberman and stopped immediately as the floor beneath him gave way and he tumbled into a collapsed, debris-ridden corridor. Rubble and metal fell onto him and he lay sprawled inside the ruin.

There was a silence.

A terrible, ghastly groan consumed the silence.

A small, repetitive bleeping continued under the groan.

S8-W3 was sending out a distress signal. Even though he was out cold, the Cyber-addition to his right cheek was still awake and active, and was increasingly desperate to be assisted.

Somewhere in his brain, the mechanical tendrils and cables which had replaced nerves flickered and sparked.

S8-W3 awoke.

He surveyed the area he was trapped in and decided that it would be impossible to move the rubble. The spacecraft was clearly close to collapse.

According to the HUDs of his newly-enhanced vision, the oxygen in the area was low. Therefore his flesh body would have difficulty staying conscious for long. He needed oxygen to keep his brain working or the conversion would be useless.

He sent out another, longer, distress signal into the Cyberiad.

This time it was answered.

**Drone S8-W3 identified**, it spoke. **Cybermite retrieval deployed.**

Somewhere in the wreckage of the ship, another Cyberman opened his wrist to allow the Cybermites within to scurry out.

S8-W3's visual circuits identified the one-hundred and twenty-seven Cybermites scurrying towards him.

**Cybermite retrieval complete.**

The Cybermites continued a further conversion, manipulating and enhancing his lungs until they no longer required oxygen. Further adaptions were made to his muscles until they were able to effortlessly tear apart the girders pinning him to the debris pile.

S8-W3 stepped from the wreckage and homed in on the local transmat frequency.

**S8-W3 requests transmat to Cybership Beta Seven.**

**Teleporting…**

S8-W3 was consumed in light and vanished from the rubble.

Six nanoseconds later, his atoms were instantaneously reassembled on the Cybership Beta Seven.

He stood motionless on the transmat pad, silently waiting for recognition from the Cyberiad.

**S8-W3 successfully teleported. Proceed to Upgrade Chambers immediately.**

He turned and exited the transmat room, the route to the Upgrade Chambers planted instantly in his head. Or rather, the link to the Cyberiad planted the route in his head.

Several minutes later, he entered the Upgrade Chambers and was commanded to enter the upgrade pod by a senior Cyberman who manned the Upgrade Chambers.

The pod was cool and metallic to the touch. Somewhere in his enhanced Cyber-mind, what was once Sam reflected that this was his last opportunity to feel it. To feel anything, really.

This miniscule part of Sam struggled to push further, to gain more control of what was once his own mind.

S8-W3 pushed him back and ordered the upgrade to proceed.

The upgrade was swift and painless. To S8-W3. To Sam, it was the most mind-numbingly agonising thing he had ever experienced. In fact, it was so mind-numbing that the Sam part of his brain fell back into nothingness and was lost.

"Upgrade in progress."

There was a pause.

"Upgrade complete."

A Cyberman stepped from the upgrade pod.

_A/N Remnants is on hold as I felt I was releasing too much at once. I spoil you people. One day, it shall come back. Yes, it shall come back. Until then, there must be no tears, no regrets, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your fanfictions and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine._

_Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little work from me – dreamt up while I was on holiday last week, and finally written up yesterday and today.  
There was no internet out there. I thought I was going to go insane._

_Bye._


End file.
